Tuesday 20 March 2012 14.04 EDT
First published on Tuesday 20 March 2012 14.04 EDT

Harry Redknapp has said his players have been buoyed by the positive news about Fabrice Muamba's progress since the Bolton Wanderers midfielder suffered a cardiac arrest during the FA Cup tie against Tottenham on Saturday and were keen to "get back on the bike" in Wednesday night's Premier League match with Stoke.

"I spoke to [the Bolton manager] Owen Coyle and he said they had had as good a day as could have been expected," said Redknapp. "All the lads are buoyed by the news which has come through, things have obviously picked up.

"Sometimes the best thing is to get back on the bike if you fall off, and we need to do that, we need to get going again. It will be a very tough game and we need to be ready to play, if we are not, then we will be in trouble with Stoke, that is for sure."

Redknapp, though, stressed he would monitor the situation carefully. "If there is anybody who feels they are not in the right frame of mind to play, then obviously I would not play them. But if everybody is OK, I will pick a team which is the best to try to win the game."

Spurs' recent slump in form, which started with a 5-2 defeat at Arsenal, has allowed their north London rivals to close up on third place, with now only one point separating the two clubs. Chelsea are four points behind Spurs, who at one time looked capable of challenging Manchester City and Manchester United for the title.

Redknapp, however, remains confident. He said: "We have had a run of not good results but they have not been bad performances. We are not playing badly, but we need a result. If we don't win, then things are really getting a bit tight. It has closed up and you have to make sure we try to pick up three points."

Tony Pulis has called on Stoke fans to help the team "finish the job off" over the next few weeks as their long and demanding season nears its end. City played their 46th game of a gruelling campaign on Sunday when they were defeated 2-1 at Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-final.

"We still need a few points in the Premier League and we want to finish as high in the table as possible, so at the end of a long season in which we have played 46 games now, we need one final effort to get us to where we want to be," he said.

Pulis's sentiments have been echoed by the Stoke chairman, Peter Coates, who says there is still plenty to play for this season. "We should not underestimate the achievement of finishing in the top 10, if we did it, especially after such a long season and with such a large workload of fixtures," he said.